Hospitals settle suits by Cullen survivors

The families of serial killer Charles Cullen's victims at Somerset Medical Center, Hunterdon Medical Center and Warren Hospital have reached a confidential settlement to end their wrongful-death lawsuits after four years.

The agreement, reached last Friday, requires the three hospitals -- as well as Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa. -- to pay an undisclosed sum to end the claims filed on behalf of 22 victims, attorneys said.

None of the hospitals admitted wrongdoing in the case, which had included claims that their administrators did nothing to stop Cullen from using stolen medications to kill patients and failed to notify authorities of cases in which they suspect him of wrongdoing.

"Eventually, you get worn down," said John Shanagher, whose 83-year-old father, Jack, was killed March 11, 2003, at Somerset Medical Center. "I would have liked someone to have stepped up, but I guess this is as close as we're going to get."

Lucille Gall, whose brother, the Rev. Florian Gall, was killed June 28, 2003, at Somerset Medical Center, said the time had come to resolve the case, since no amount of money would bring her brother back.

"To this day, they have never said to me what happened, and that's something that I have to deal with," she said. "But it wouldn't have changed the course that Charles Cullen murdered my brother."

In a statement, Somerset Medical Center said it hopes the settlement will provide the families "some sense of closure."

"We know this has been a difficult time for all of the families involved and our hearts go out to them," Somerset Medical Center said.

Cullen was arrested in December 2003 on suspicion that he murdered patients at Somerset Medical Center. It was the last stop in a career that began at Saint Barnabas in 1987 and took him through Warren Hospital, Hunterdon Medical Center, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa., and St. Luke's, even though he was fired from or forced out of at least six facilities.

He eventually pleaded guilty to murdering 29 patients at hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and attempting to kill six others. He is serving a life sentence at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton as part of an agreement with prosecutors to help them identify his victims.

The two sides hammered out the agreement during four mediation sessions with retired Judge Robert Longhi, who was appointed by the trial court to oversee negotiations.

Not all lawsuits filed by families of Cullen's victims in New Jersey were resolved by the settlement. A case brought by Wayne Sarrow, whose father, Henry, died at Morristown Memorial Hospital nine years ago, will continue. The hospital refused to participate in mediation.

"For whatever reason, they decided to pack up their bags," Wayne Sarrow said. "It's disappointing, to say the least."

Morristown Memorial Hospital attorney Michael Bubb said he did not participate in negotiations because "we feel very strongly that he did not die at the hospital due to anything done by the hospital or anything done by Cullen. All the evidence, which was even reviewed by the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, supports our position. Even Cullen has denied it."

The prosecutor's office has yet to present the case to a grand jury despite saying it would do so more than a year ago. The office did not comment yesterday.

The agreement comes as the Appellate Division is considering whether to overturn a trial judge's decision allowing the families of 16 victims at Somerset Medical Center to sue that facility as well as others that employed Cullen in New Jersey.

Superior Court Judge Bryan Garruto found last fall that the hospitals opened themselves up to civil liability by not reporting Cullen's improper conduct -- from medicating patients without doctor's orders to turning off their ventilators and treating them roughly -- to authorities.

Attorney James D. Martin, who represented Shanagher and the family of James R. Strickland, another victim at Somerset Medical Center, said the impending ruling prodded both sides to negotiate.
"I'm certain that this pending opinion hanging over their heads motivated them," said Martin. "That wasn't as big a factor to us as it was to them."